Normally this isn’t the type of story I would do a post about. People do creepy things in this day and age. But, since I know this guy I am intrigued by this story. Adam worked as an intern for the Romney Campaign and also was a paid staffer for the Newt Campaign. My regular readers may remember that a very good friend of mine was also a paid staffer for Newt. As such, after I realized that I wasn’t all that jazzed with the choices we had in the last round, I did decide to go and work for the Newt campaign as well. I wasn’t paid, but I did a great deal of work on a volunteer basis. I enjoyed spending time with my bud, and I learned a great deal doing it. This is where I met Adam.

Adam had always struck me a little awkward, but I am very shocked to hear this. I talked to people who I still am in contact with from the Newt campaign last night and they are just as shocked as I am. One of these friends just had him as a houseguest recently. Another said:

I’m just shocked!!! I just thought he was a very severe young guy who would eventually loosen up!! WOW!!

Now he has been arrested for trying to blackmail women to send him nude photos of themselves. Apparently he somehow came across pictures of naked women, found out their identities and tried to blackmail them into sending more photos or he would publicly release the photos that he found. Creepy, very creepy. Obviously under our justice system he is considered innocent until proven otherwise. He is facing up to five years in federal prison. Since he is only 21 years old, that is very sad. This will take away his voting privileges for life, his desire to work in politics is now over, and even though it will be a federal prison, it won’t be fun. Seeing naked pictures of women is pretty easy so why he felt he needed to go to this extreme is profoundly confusing, except to say again, that I found him to be very awkward. He was 21 so why couldn’t just go and buy a Playboy is something that I just don’t understand.

But I must ask myself why is it that he was able to find naked pictures of women seemingly so easily? Don’t parents have this discussion with their daughters? I don’t know how old these women are exactly, but apparently they were all college aged. It seems that they were students with him at the same college.

We live in an age where virtually everyone has a camera on them at all times. I know no one that doesn’t have at least a camera on their cell phone. Even mine which is the cheapest of all services still has a camera and the ability to upload those photos easily. Most young Americans are on some sort of social media; twitter and Facebook to name just two. Virtually everyone in the country has access to email. Is it common to put naked pics of yourself in these forums? I have never done it (thank God for small miracles) and never would. I wouldn’t even think that sending a naked photo of myself over the internet to the man in my life would be a good idea. The reality is this, once you put it out over the internet, it is no longer private. As much as we would like to think that it is, it just isn’t. Facebook’s policy is quite clear, you cannot expect privacy from what you post. It is out there. Any photos that I put on this blog are out there and become public domain. Hence the reason you don’t see photos of my family and loved ones on this blog. I refuse to do it.

I am in no way trying to blame the alleged victims in this case, but what I am saying is don’t we have conversations with our kids about the very real dangers of social media? We live in a world that has crazy on every corner and you never really know what someone is going to do. Apparently these young women did have naked photos of themselves, in some cases stored in their email accounts. Isn’t that bizarre? Why would you have naked photos of yourself in your email? Is this a normal thing now with college aged kids? I don’t recall knowing anyone who did this when I was in college.

I know my parents never had these conversations with me, but in their in defense I didn’t grow up in the time of everyone having a cell phone and internet access. My parents never really had to have this discussion with me, and beyond that I have always been shy about these types of things anyway. I can’t imagine letting anyone taking a picture of me naked.

Now, I was just reading the other day that a school system in New York was running an anti-bullying campaign in the school where they had the girls role play being a lesbian and asking their classmates for a kiss. That is something that the school spends time on, but are they addressing this issue? It would seem to me that this is an issue that is far more important than teaching teenagers how to pick up same-sex partners, but hey that is just me.

I want to make it perfectly clear, if Adam is guilty, he belongs in jail. He should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. Again, I am not blaming the young women here, but I am asking if we are doing enough, as parents, to discuss the real dangers that exist in our technology driven society? It seems to me that the answer is apparently not.

I guess now I know why he was on social media constantly during the day.